KL Rahul opens about trolls on social media amid poor form

KL Rahul (Source - Twitter)

Indian batter and skipper of the Lucknow Super Giants, KL Rahul finally spoke about the trolls and criticisms he is getting on social media for his poor form in recent times. The 31-year-old has been ruled out of the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League and the upcoming Test Championship Final after sustaining an injury while fielding during the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 1st.

However, Rahul wasn’t having a good time with the bat starting from the Test series against Australia. Also in nine matches he played in IPL so far, he scored 274 runs at an underwhelming strike rate of 113.22. He has been facing continuous trolling on social media and the Indian batter admitted how the trolling does affect him and also mentioned what an athlete goes through during their tough time.

“That’s something that sometimes affects me and affects a lot of the other boys as well that when we athletes truly need support, people feel they can or have the power to comment or say what they want. Just see what that person is going through,” Rahul said on BeerBiceps podcast on Youtube by Ranveer Allahbadia.

“None of us wants to perform badly. This is our life. This is all we do. Like I said, I don’t know anything else apart from cricket. That’s the only thing I do. Why would anyone assume that I am not serious about my game or I am not working hard enough? And unfortunately in sports, there is no connection. Like I said you can work hard, like I work hard but the result didn’t go my way,” he further added.

'You've to choose what you want to do' - Rahul

Rahul also said that he tries to stay away from all the good and bad comments. He admitted that at first, he used to think that the negative comments didn’t affect him but later realized that it does affect him.

“There are people who support the players, but I personally try to stay away from both (good and bad comments). You have to. Sometimes, you do want to listen to people say good things, but you realise if you get sucked into that, you also have to be ready to face the other side. You've to choose what you want to do. If you're a person who doesn't get affected by all that, sure, you do that. For a long time, it didn't affect me. I was like, 'I don't care. I will prove these guys wrong'. But later on, I realised it does affect me, I just tried to hide it," Rahul said.